Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley (8 January 1935-16 August 1977) was an American singer and actor. Born in a Tupelo, Mississippi shotgun house, he relocated to Nashville, Tennessee when he was 13, and his music career began in 1954 with Sun Records. He pioneered rockabilly, a fusion of country music and R&B, and Colonel Tom Parker was his manager for over 20 years. His first single was "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956, and he created a successful network of television appearances and chart-topping records. He became enormously popular due to his status as an icon of the rebellious youth of the 1950s and as a man who bridged the gap between white and African-American music, but he was also controversial for these reasons. During the 1960s, Parker had Presley focus on acting and making soundtrack albums, which were less successful than his 1950s career. In 1968, he made a comeback, and he became a regular Las Vegas concert performer. He died at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee on 16 August 1977 at the age of 42 from a heart attack, induced by years of prescription drug abuse.

Elvis was wise to not make his political views prominent, although he supported the Democratic Party. In 1956, he supported Democrat Adlai Stevenson II over Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, and he was also a fan of John F. Kennedy and a personal friend of Jimmy Carter. However, he disliked the progressivism and counterculture of the 1960s, and he also attempted to convince President Richard Nixon to prevent The Beatles from coming to America, as he felt that they bad influence on American youth and contributed to their anti-American, anti-capitalistic, and anti-war sentiments.